By Tarek Amara and Zakia Abdennebi
Tunis/Rabat - The world's growing taste for olive oil is pouring new life into parts of rural North Africa, where the golden liquid has been a staple since ancient times.
However, drought, archaic production methods and poor marketing are a challenge for local producers facing growing competition as more countries slip into the olive oil market.
Tunisia and Morocco lack the big energy reserves of their OPEC-member neighbours Algeria and Libya and their dry, hot climates make olive oil a promising alternative export.
All but 5 percent of the world's olive trees grow around the Mediterranean. Spain dominates the industry from its power base in Martos, followed by Italy and Greece.
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After heavy investment in modern machinery, the quality of Tunisian olive oil has improved and industry officials in Spain say it now fetches prices similar to their own.
Attempts by North Africa to narrow the gap have been welcomed by European producers unable to press enough olive oil to meet world demand as growing middle classes from Brazil to Russia acquire a taste.
More expensive than other cooking oils, it contains more healthier mono-unsaturated fat and polyphenols.
Tunisians, rich or poor, have honed their expertise over centuries, smothering their food in olive oil and using it in medicines, beauty products and soaps or rubbed in as a moisturiser.
"I've kept my health as I drink a glass of olive oil every morning and my wife uses it for every meal," said 90-year-old Hamed, a sprightly former night security guard from Tunis.
More than 500 000 families rely on the olive oil business in the country of 10 million, where 56 million olive trees grow on 1,6-million hectares.
The olive harvest between November and February sets the rhythm of the rural year and many Tunisians return to their native towns and villages to help gather the crop.
Women sing traditional songs and exchange jokes as they pick up the olives shaken to the ground by the men.
"My whole family is better off when we have a bumper olive harvest like this year," said Haj Smida, a farmer near the eastern Tunisian town of el-Jem.
Salem Rhaim, a 68-year-old olive oil producer, postponed his son's wedding last year because of a poor crop.
"I think we'll have a good harvest this season," said Rhaim. "If it's as good as we hope, I'll be ready to face the expensive wedding preparations."
For all the local know-how, Tunisian producers say a lot of good oil is still sold off cheaply on the local market because they lack the technology to make it export grade.
Some complain businessmen have moved into olive oil just to benefit from tax breaks but what they produce is poor, threatening the industry's brand image.
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